In the life journey of the Guangxu Emperor, there are four male characters who are crucial, and together they shape the trajectory of the emperor's destiny and profoundly affect the direction of his life. These four are: Yi Xun, Weng Tongyi, Yuan Shikai and Li Lianying.
Yi Xun, the biological father of the Guangxu Emperor, ushered in the birth of his son at the age of thirty-one, which later became the Guangxu Emperor.
Prior to his accession to the throne, he was Cixi's brother-in-law, so he was highly regarded by the imperial court, holding many hats, including the capital commander, the former minister, etc., and was also responsible for supervising the studies of the emperor and his princes. However, when Emperor Tongzhi passed away and Zai Yan succeeded to the throne, Yiyun's life changed dramatically. He was under unprecedented pressure, and even fainted at one point from the news, unable to adjust to the transition for a long time. In order to dispel Cixi's doubts, he played the secret piece of "Yu Du Delusion" to show his heart. After that, he took the initiative to resign from all positions, trying to avoid too much involvement in court affairs, so as not to arouse Cixi's suspicion.
Weng Tongyi, a talented man in Changshu, Jiangsu, was an important figure in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty, he served as the imperial teacher of the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors, and held important positions in the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry and the Military Aircraft Department.
His relationship with the Guangxu Emperor was particularly close, as he accompanied the emperor for twenty-two years in his educational career. During his days in Yuqing Palace, he was not only the emperor's teacher, but also his friend and confidant. He taught the emperor traditional cultural knowledge, guided him to understand the Western culture of improvement, and cultivated his ability to govern the country in combination with real events. These efforts of Weng Tongyi had a profound impact on the imperial life of Emperor Guangxu. Unfortunately, however, he was eventually forced to leave the court due to the jealousy of the "post-party", ending his political career.
Yuan Shikai, the hero of Xiangcheng, Henan Province, is an important figure in modern Chinese history.
After his career in Korea, he returned to China to supervise the training of the new army and gradually rose to prominence. Emperor Guangxu had high hopes for him, expecting his new army to bring change to the country. However, Yuan Shikai eventually betrayed the Guangxu Emperor and betrayed the Restoration. His betrayal put the Guangxu Emperor in a difficult situation, and the reform movement also failed.
Li Lianying (1848-1911), born in Dacheng County, Shuntianfu, is now a native of Lijia Village, Zangtun Township, Dacheng County, Hebei Province, and his ancestral home is Qihe, Shandong, and he is a eunuch.
According to his epitaph, he was born in the 28th year of Daoguang (1848), entered the palace at the age of 9, and was sent to the palace by Prince Zheng Duanhua Mansion as an errand boy. In the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869), at the age of 21, An Dehai was killed, and Li Lianying was trusted by Cixi and promoted to the head of the second rank. In the 34 years from Emperor Guangxu's entry into the palace to his death, Li Lianying always accompanied the Empress Dowager Cixi. Li Lianying is alert and tactful. He participated in major events in the DPRK and China, at the age of 40 in the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), he inspected the navy with King Alcohol, and in the 26th year of Guangxu (1900) at the age of 52, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing and fled to Xi'an with Guangxu and Cixi. In the complex and changeable relationship between Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, Li Lianying went back and forth. For Emperor Guangxu, Li Lianying coped with it on the one hand, and tried her best to take care of it on the other. With Li Lianying's character, the relationship between the two is definitely not an enemy. Wang Zhao, a famous reformist in the Qing Dynasty, once told such a story: Cixi led Guangxu to flee and returned to Beijing and went to Baoding to live. The place where the Queen Mother sleeps is spread out in a beautiful bedding, and Li Lianying lives a little worse, but it is also very good. Li Lianying waited for Cixi to fall asleep and came to visit Emperor Guangxu's residence, and saw Guangxu sitting in front of the lamp, without a eunuch on duty. When I asked, I realized that the emperor didn't even have a cover, and it was the middle of winter, so I couldn't sleep at all. Li Lianying immediately knelt down and hugged Guangxu's leg and cried bitterly: "The minions deserve death!" and hugged her own bedding for Guangxu to use. Guangxu later recalled the suffering of fleeing westward, and said: "Without Li Chenda, I would not be alive today." It can be seen that Li Lianying took care of Emperor Guangxu as much as possible.
These four male characters, whether it is Emperor Guangxu's biological father Yi Xun, or his teacher Weng Tongyi, or the betrayer Yuan Shikai, have had a significant impact on the trajectory of Emperor Guangxu's life. They either gave the emperor love and support, or provided him with knowledge and wisdom, or brought him betrayal and disappointment. In any case, they were an indispensable part of Emperor Guangxu's life, and together they formed a complex and colorful picture of his life.